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40 results. Displaying results 1 - 40.

Name Summary/Abstract Subject category
2014.411_p1 ‘A Long Day in a Tin Can’
New Zealand Railways hostesses recall working the main trunk line in the 1970’s and 80's.
New Zealand Railways
North Island Main Trunk Railway
1982.770_p15 Short Sunderland NZ4115
MOTAT's Short Sunderland NZ4115 was officially presented to MOTAT in September 1966 and arrived the summer of 1967. Read on for more about its history and delivery to MOTAT.
New Zealand
Airplanes, Military
New Zealand
New Zealand. Royal New Zealand Air Force
Seaplanes
Short S.25 Sunderland Mk.III
Short Sunderland
2010.423_p2 The Human Story of an Adana Press
<p>Researching the MOTAT collection often uncovers the story behind the object. A small printing press currently on display in MOTAT&rsquo;s Print Shop, has an interesting gem of a narrative connected to it via its donor. The press was used during the donor&rsquo;s notable career, which happened in the context of events in national and world history.</p>
Printing presses
Printing industry
Printing
Tangiwai
Harold Piper — What’s in an Aviator’s Logs? Harold Piper — What’s in an Aviator’s Logs?
The Walsh Memorial Library hold eight logbooks of Banks Peninsula-born pilot Harold Lord Piper (1899–1965). Log books are an invaluable record for any pilot — tracing the different aircraft types flown, distances and conditions they flew in.
Aviators
Log books
‘You’ve kicked me’: Tram Conductresses ‘You’ve kicked me’: Tram Conductresses
Auckland’s tramway was initially a public/private venture by the British Electric Traction Company in London and the Auckland Borough Councils but was taken over by the Auckland City Corporation in 1919. It flourished for 40 years but street tramways fell out of favour and were replaced by diesel and trolleybuses in a modernisation programme after the Second World War. Auckland’s last trams ran on 30 December 1956 (although they run regularly at MOTAT).
Women transport workers
New Zealand
Auckland
Open access: Glass plate & lantern slide collection Open access: Glass plate & lantern slide collection
As we are all adjusting to increasingly ‘virtual’ means of learning, exploring and engaging with the world’s heritage, we’d like to highlight a collection recently digitised by the Walsh Memorial Library’s Assistant Librarian for Digitisation, Andrew Pettengell. This recent project is part of MOTAT’s continuous process to improve the access information available on Collections Online. We’ve recently uploaded copyright terms for over 7,000 photographic records now in the public domain. Over 3,000 of these have images attached, including ones from the rich glass plate and lantern slide collections cared for by the Walsh Memorial Library. Read on to uncover the process to catalogue, digitise & preserve this rich collection and showcase some of the various subject highlights.
Photography
Photographic processes
Topographical surveying
Nature photography
New Zealand
Photographers
1964.228_p15 To the South Pole in a farm tractor
2017.23.2_p1 A Polarising Sauce: The Essence of Anchovies
In 2017, MOTAT received the donation of an unopened bottle of sauce carrying the title “Essence of Anchovies”. At first it may seem an unusual object for MOTAT's Collection, so let’s take a closer look at the unique history of this object.
Amateur Radio Operations Aid the 1933 Tasman Crossing by the Southern Cross Amateur Radio Operations Aid the 1933 Tasman Crossing by the Southern Cross
Aviation tours captured the imagination of the New Zealand public, with Tasman crossings increasingly carried out in the 1930s after the first successful crossing in 1928 by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. In January 1933 Kingsford Smith made another crossing, flying between Sydney and New Plymouth in Fokker F.VII ‘Southern Cross’ with co-pilot Patrick Gordon Taylor and radio operator John Stannage.
Shortwave radio
Radio stations
Radio operators
Radio
Flight radio operators
Radio equipment
Southern Cross (Airplane)
Fokker Tri-Motor F.VIIB-3M (Southern Cross)
Leo White: The Man Behind The Whites Aviation Collection Leo White: The Man Behind The Whites Aviation Collection
The Whites Aviation Collection spans some 70 years of history with categories covering the early aero clubs, trans-Tasman flights, the formation of the early airlines in New Zealand and other aviation events up to the 1970's.
Whites Aviation Limited
Photographers
Photography
Aerial photography
2020.38_p2 In Stitches: A Selection of Sewing Machines
In use since the late 1700s, sewing machines have been a key component in both domestic and industrial technology. Contributing to the industrial revolution, providing uniforms for war, and altering domestic duties; sewing machines have evolved with social change throughout history. Often associated with the popular Singer name, sewing machines have become a symbol of women’s work, clothing production and factory jobs. It is interesting to note sewing machines were not manufactured in New Zealand but imported and sold under license by New Zealand retailers. The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) Collection has a variety of sewing machines, which represent New Zealanders links with these, once essential, domestic appliance and reveal a unique side business for vehicle manufacturers.
Sewing
Sewing-machines
Manufacturers
‘We were novelties’: TEAL Solent Flying Boat Stewardesses ‘We were novelties’: TEAL Solent Flying Boat Stewardesses
MOTAT has the last remaining Mark IV Short Solent flying boat in the world in its collection. In the Walsh Memorial Library’s recorded sound archive, there are a number of interviews recorded by members of the Solent Preservation Society in the 1990s. In the late 2000s we recorded some interviews with stewardesses who flew on the Solents between Auckland and Wellington and Sydney, and from Auckland up to the Pacific to Tonga and Fiji, and on the Coral Route which went via Fiji, Samoa and the Cook Islands to Tahiti. The Auckland-Sydney route started in 1949, the Wellington-Sydney one in 1950. In 1951 the Coral Route began — at first monthly and then fortnightly.
Flight attendants
New Zealand
Anecdotes
Tasman Empire Airways Limited
Employees
Anecdotes
Oral history
Tales from the Air: Batten’s Journey to Brazil Tales from the Air: Batten’s Journey to Brazil
Jean Batten is well remembered for her record flights between England, Australia and New Zealand. In 1935 she set off on another record breaking flight from England to Brazil in her Percival Gull aircraft.
Flight
Batten, Jean Gardner, 1909-1982
Aviators
New Zealand
No.253 the “Queen Mary” while still new at the City Depot, Gaunt Street (Photographer Graham Stewart). MOTAT’s Queen of the Rails
How one of Auckland’s Last Trams contributed to the beginings of the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).
'Streamliner' class (Tram)
Trams
Tramways
Tram 100 on Rail Live Day 2018 The Life & Times of a well-travelled Steam tram Engine - No.100 - celebrating 130 years of age
Built in 1891 by the well-known engine manufacturers Baldwin Locomotive Works, read about the history of MOTAT's Tram 100.
Australia
New Zealand
Conservation and restoration
Wanganui Corporation Tramways
2016.48_p2 Open Wide: A Short History of the Murder House in New Zealand
Many businesses such as dentists and hairdressers have been overwhelmed with bookings after the return to ‘normal’ life post Covid-19 lockdown here in New Zealand. It makes you wonder: a rush to the dentist is usually unheard of because, for many, the idea of the dentist conjures up images of pain and cold, clinical sights and smells. But where did this anxiety come from? This article aims to delve into the history of the School Dental Service (SDS), the school dental clinics also known by my parent’s generation as the ‘murder house’, and bring our worst fears into the light. Did it succeed in improving children’s oral health? Was the ‘murder house’ really a place of trauma and pain?
Dentistry
New Zealand
2018.30_p1 Preserving Time
During the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic, a trend that re-emerged was the appreciation of a more slow-paced life. This resulted from having more time at home due to people’s movements being restricted to their neighbourhoods. People had more time to spend in the garden and exercise through, walks, running, biking and/or scooter rides within their bubbles. With the lack of takeaway options, home cooked meals and baking became more common;, this also included the act of preserving food.
Canning and preserving
Glass
Glass manufacture
2006.349_p3 A New Topdressing Aircraft
The Walsh Memorial Library hold eight logbooks of Banks Peninsula-born pilot Harold Lord Piper (1899–1965). Log books are an invaluable record for any pilot — tracing the different aircraft types flown, distances and conditions they flew in.
Aerial fertilization
New Zealand
05-2556_001 The Arrival of a MOTAT Icon
As part of the Registry team's Collection Review we delve into researching the MOTAT Collection. Here is some research I have been undertaking.
K (Locomotive)
New Zealand Railways
Locomotives
2020.3.2_p1 Lime e-scooters: Shared Micromobility Hits Auckland's Streets.
Lime played a pivotal role in the introduction of shared-use scooters to New Zealand in 2018.
Urban transportation
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